


Nightmares

by ruric



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Community: fic_promptly, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-02
Updated: 2017-08-02
Packaged: 2021-02-27 19:55:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 407
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22531321
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ruric/pseuds/ruric
Summary: Some things give Clint nightmares.
Relationships: Clint Barton & Natasha Romanov
Collections: fic_promptly Fills 2012





	Nightmares

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Peaceful_sands 2012 prompt: Avengers, any, in the heat of battle

The first time he really thinks about it is after the battle of New York.

Not the immediate aftermath that had been mostly shock – even for him and for Nat - because even though they’ve all seen weird shit in their time that day was something special by anyone’s standards.

After the shock had been the inevitable recriminations – even though they’d saved the city people had died. Innocent people died. Only a fool tries to run away from that - and pretend it didn’t happen and none of them are fools. Then came the PR spin which Fury tried to minimize but at the moment a quarter of New York thinks they’re saviors, a quarter hate them even though they won, and the rest still haven’t made up their minds.

He understands, if he was the other side of this he’d probably hate them too.

It’s in the weeks and months after the initial battle that he starts to worry at it.

Tony’s suits gives him all the toys, speed and power and – to some extent – a deadly accuracy but Tony always wants to push thing to the limits, even when some of those things haven’t been tested and may not be reliable.

Hulk fights on pure animal instinct.

Cap can do things no human should be able to do and where Tony has bravado Cap has some degree of caution.

Thor’s -well Thor is Thor. God or Asgardian no-one’s quite sure where his limits are so does it make any difference what he is?

Which leaves him and Nat – and they’ve been fighting together long enough to know each other’s moves. He can anticipate where she’s going to be, what she’s going to do, and what crazy idea she might have – just as well as he can plan his own moves. He knows when he reaches for her or needs her she’ll be there. But they’re a unit and dropping a two man unit into a new team of four doesn’t always bode well.

They winged it in New York, and maybe the city suffered because of it.

And it’s that thought which haunts his dreams and sends him shuddering awake covered in sweat and with a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach.

They need to be better.

They need to be a team in both word and action, and to fight like a team - not just like six individuals- even in the heat of battle.


End file.
